That's what the thermometer in Shootin' Buddy's truck read yesterday morning at the range: 24°F.
I ungloved* long enough to load my six 22/45 magazines twice, for 120 rounds of deuce-deuce downrange. I also fished out the seven loose rounds of 9mm WWB that were rolling around the bottom of the ammo can and ran them through the G19, because I at least wanted to see how it worked while all gloved up. It was my shortest range trip in quite some time.
The black-bullet Winchester M-22 had probably a half-dozen light strikes in all that, but since the gun was dry and hasn't been cleaned since the late Cretaceous, I'm not ready to blame the ammo yet.
We stopped by Bradis guns, and the place looked like it had been hit by locusts. No .22LR. One lonely Glock in the showcase and one lonely AR on the wall behind it. About the only thing that was plentiful were racks of Mosins and stacks of 7.62x54R spam cans. Also 5.45x39mm. Unfortunately, I'm all stocked up on the former and have nothing through which to run the latter.
*I use insulated bikie gloves for most of my wintertime warm hand needs that don't involve snowball fights. They're light, warm, and windproof, and I can use them on the bike, too.
13 comments:
It was cold but at least I had a yummy Broad Ripple breakfast in my belly to keep me warm.
It will warm up . . . after it snows . . . and then the freezing rain . . . and then the ice . . . and then the frogs.
Shootin' Buddy
I was out on Saturday for a couple of hours and it wasn't too bad, wool socks and thermal hoodie, oh and gloves.
I like my Under Armour stretch gloves as I can load mags with them on and they have a grippy bit on the grip side of the glove to allow a good, well grip. Not terribly warm mind you, but they give my arthritic hands enough of a shield against the cold to operate and don't affect shooting a great deal. I can still feel the trigger well.
As far as I can tell, they don't make them any longer unfortunately.
So THAT'S where the Russian Stuff is Hiding!
You've just made a bunch of New Yorkers very happy.
Sorry to rub it in, Tam but I just checked the local weather guesser's forecast for this coming Saturday's IDPA match: Sunny and near 70.
If it's any consolation it was a damp 38 degrees for last Thursday's night match. Made stuffing rounds into magazines unpleasant.
The last couple of times we have been out to do IDPA drills, we have been shooting with fingerless wool gloves on. Good practice, since that is the way my hands are for 8 months out of the year. Didn't seem to affect us much.
I should mention that skateboard/grip tape and wool gloves REALLY stick together. No losing a pistol or long gun to a slippery wet glove!
Also, Tam can have her vengeance on me when I whine about shooting a match at 104 degrees with 90% humidity.
Huh, I thought it was too warm Sunday.
The MTB trails were all sloppy muddy and unridable.
Sheesh, pedal-bikes - I thought at least they were moto-gloves.
Wow! You found a gun store with a Glock, AND an AR, AND 76254 AND 54539, all in stock at the same time?
24 degrees is almost cold enough to stay warm for not getting wet. Zero or slightly below is pretty good, and it allows you to work hard, as when hiking on snowshoes with a backpack, without over-heating too much, AND you stay dry, and it's still warm enough that you can breathe hard without damaging your lungs.
A very cold gun is often less reliable than a room temperature gun, so it's good practice to get out in the coldest weather you might encounter. Around these parts that means 20 to 30 below. At those temps things behave very differently, and I’ve crushed more than a few CF primers without them going bang. -- Lyle
Thanks Tam, I'll check those gloves out.
I took out my brand new CZ 550 in .416 Rigby to do a preliminary test firing for a whopping 5 shots! It was less abusive than I thought it would be but I sort of psyched myself out. Also I definitely needed a sling so I went home and ordered a safari Ching sling. Hopefully next trip I will do more actual shooting. With 5 boxes of Hornady 400 grainers on tap I intend to really learn how to handle this one.
Hmm, snowball fights. Tam, I betcha you are one of those people who imbeds large rocks into your snowballs, and then compresses them good and hard to consolidate them well. And tries for the faces of your opponents.
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